Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Legault v. Arusso, 1st Cir. (1997)
Legault v. Arusso, 1st Cir. (1997)
No. 96-1566
MICHELLE LEGAULT,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
v.
Defendants - Appellees.
____________________
RALPH R. ARUSSO,
Defendant - Appellant.
____________________
No. 96-1567
MICHELLE LEGAULT,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
v.
Defendants - Appellees.
____________________
THOMAS A. DILUGLIO,
Appellant.
____________________
____________________
Before
_____________________
were on brief
for appellants
Ralph R.
____________________
____________________
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PONSOR,
PONSOR,
propriety
of
sanctions
upon
District Judge.
District Judge.
______________
the
district
the
This
court's
appeal challenges
imposition
defendant-appellant
of
Ralph aRusso
the
monetary
and
his
discrimination case.
I.
I.
In
May
of
1993
BACKGROUND
BACKGROUND
__________
plaintiff-appellee
Michelle Legault
brought
mayor
suit against
at
the
Zambarano,
time, Ralph
on her
firefighter.
gender when
irreparable
harm.
Title
its
its
fire chief,
Alan
a position
as a
the defendants
settled when
the
Subsequently,
U.S.C.
the
town
to hire
1994).
district judge
Legault judgment
VII, 42
cause her
requiring
aRusso, 842
______
awarding
and
Rhode Island,
injunction
of Johnston,
aRusso,
her based
case
the town
against
her.
Legault v.
_______
On April
5, 1995 the
signed
the town
1983
and
two Rhode
paid
Legault's
a consent
order
for violations
Island
reasonable
of
statutes.
costs
and
attorney's fees.
before the
against aRusso,
Zambarano
filed a motion
and their
for sanctions
attorney Thomas
DiLuglio.
The district court heard evidence on the motion over two days and
-3-
ordering that
the
three each
be held
responsible for
one-third of
the fees
On
March
29,
1996,
following
the
settlement,
the
and
set the
ordered
monetary
penalty in
to recover
the
amount of
three parties be
$16,450.
He
any part of
paid to
misconduct
and
the award
of the
fees
an abuse of discretion.
constituted error
as a
decision
II.
II.
A challenge
DISCUSSION
DISCUSSION
__________
to a trial judge's
twenty
years
importance of
sanctions,
sanction,
ago
the
Supreme
supporting a
even
where
Court
trial
the
outright dismissal,
exercise of discretion
sharply
court's decisions
judge imposed
for
Club, Inc.,
___________
U.S.
639,
directive.
642-43
the
misconduct
phase of a case.
427
underlined
(1976).
Over
the
concerning
most
stringent
in the
pretrial
Metropolitan Hockey
___________________
This
circuit's
-4-
F.2d 535, 537 (1st Cir. 1988); Damiani v. Rhode Island Hosp., 704
_______
__________________
F.2d
12,
17
(1st
Cir.
1983).
In
this
legal
medium
the
This argument is
offered
$16,450
sanction be
paid
as a
reimbursement
to the
town
of
Johnston, and not to Legault, to the extent that the town's prior
payment
of
appellants'
claim,
fees
to
Legault
misconduct.
and not
covered
The town of
Legault,
is the
work
necessitated
Johnston, they
proper
party to
by
appear to
oppose
this
This
appeal
is
a meaningless
the district
court abused
this appeal
because
quibble.
of the proper
The
on this
its discretion in
Legault,
issue
awarding sanctions
in fact, has
an interest
in
things, a
ruling from this court that the district judge erred in declining
Moreover, even
if she lacked
a personal stake
in the
is certainly
not a case, if
This
contest.
-5-
eligibility to offer a
possible grounds,
found justified
an
award of sanctions.
A.
A.
detour
Process.
Process.
________
into
the
merits
of
the
underlying
Although allegations of
i.e.,
____
discriminatory treatment
intentional discrimination
--
were included
in
--
Legault's
focused
on
impact.
______
plaintiff's
alternative
claim
of
discriminatory
process for
fair
rationale,
discovery,
and
of
in
excluding
opposition
women
to the
from
hiring.
motion
for
During
preliminary
included rigorous
which
pursued
this issue
hearing, generating
get on
with
energy at
the preliminary
Both
sides
injunction
analysis.
-6-
job on the
in fact, based
defendants.
The
town's
impressive
edifice
of
purportedly
ultimately acknowledged to be
Nevertheless,
before
in
answers
to
interrogatories
served
rank.
that
Judge
constituted
Barbadoro
found
a flat violation
of Fed
these
R. Civ.
false
responses
P. 26(g)(2).
It
this conclusion.
Rule
bear
26(g)(2) requires
that every
discovery response
the best of
the signer's
reasonable
knowledge, information
inquiry" that
these rules . . . ;
the response
is "(A)
after a
consistent with
(C) not
unreasonable . . . ."1
____________________
perceive no
-7-
unfairness, and
rules in
For ease of
because the
failed
all
three
of these
tests.
Either
as
result
of
the real
facts, the
interposed to
inconsistent with
delay and
were
unreasonable.
discretion
litigant
on
and
these facts
_____
his
court, or even
is not
attorney
intended
expose
abuse his
to suggest
themselves
to
that a
discovery
where it enjoys
support.
The
The
initial position
of
the town
and
different order.
its officials
was,
in
eventually conceded.
and expense.
This
misconduct caused
substantial delay
found to call
If
without
substantial
certification
is made
in
justification
violation of
sanction, which
the
the
the certification,
objection
amount
or both,
may include an
of
the
on whose
response, or
an appropriate
order to pay
reasonable
expenses
violation, including
____________________
outcome
of this
appeal would
not change,
we have
applied the
-8-
for
the sanction equally between the lawyer and the parties, and
pursuing
her motion
for sanctions.
Moreover,
the plaintiff's
requested sanction
court
found
painstaking
to
was carefully
be
trimmed to eliminate
excessive
approach to
time.
the issue is
more
what the
moderate
hard to imagine.
and
At the
B.
B.
On
August
Process.
Process.
________
13, 1993,
three
days
before the
initial
Magistrate
counsel,
Judge, Attorney
which
he copied
DiLuglio sent
to the
court.
a letter
This
to opposing
letter stated,
Fed. R. Civ. P.
pertinent
respects for
"[e]very pleading,
the court.
purposes
of this
in all
decision, applies
an abuse
to
paper" presented to
the representation
it was
Courts
letter
generally
as
an
"other
-9-
reluctant to characterize a
paper"
in
weighing
Rule
11
sanctions.
128
See,
___
F.R.D. 613,
DiLuglio
616 (S.D.N.Y.
deliberately
Magistrate Judge
three
copied
1989).
his
days before
In this
letter
to
case, however,
the
presiding
the preliminary
injunction
hearing with the purpose "to advise the court and all parties" of
its contents.
memorandum
Moreover,
He repeated
opposing
the
the substance of
motion
for
the letter
preliminary
in his
injunction.
his recommendation
(later rejected
by the district
court) that
To
over
substance and
sent
this
reward the
letter, the
influence the
insure its
substantially.
rankest game-playing.
trial judge
court, at a
impact.
of Rule 11 would be to
As it
time and
found,
in a
happened, it did
with the
exalt form
DiLuglio
intent to
manner calculated
to
in
C.
C.
Violation
of Fed.
R.
Civ.
P. 26(g)
Re:
Violation
of Fed.
R.
Civ.
P. 26(g)
Re:
__________________________________________________
Identification of Documents.
Identification of Documents.
____________________________
The
improperly
response to
trial
failed to
judge
found
produce
that
the
four categories
defendants
of documents
had
in
requests: a report
-10-
by an independent testing
on
each
applicant who
took the
list of code
written exam;
numbers assigned to
a list
showing the
actual hiring
course,
rank
of
each applicant
and pleadings in
other civil
who
took
the
rights cases
training
against the
town of Johnston.
would
have
gone
far
to
uncover
the
speciousness
of
the
on objective
criteria.
The
court found
The
spell
that
the defendants'
located them.
out
reasonable
the
obvious:
certifying
lawyer
must
make
"a
such
that no
Imposition of sanctions
requiring
the
filing
of
all pretrial
Defendants,
it is
material
conceded,
-11-
on
did not
or before
comply.
weeks late, on
or
about
May 9, 1994.
disregard of
such orders with regard thereto as are just, and among others any
of
or in
addition to
this sanction,
the
court may
In lieu
order the
cited provisions of
court
made
compliance
expense,
no
explicit
with the
that
court's pretrial
imposition of a
upon their
finding
the
defendants'
order caused
acknowledged neglect
of the court's
non-
Legault any
(even in part)
order regarding
We cannot agree.
to file
of
money,
are
tasks
that
must be
left
except
in
the most
scene.
Beyond
this
the
trial
judge
has
an
independent
-12-
case.
terms.
This court
point before
in the
clearest
by them.
-- and
In
the final
judicial
process
judge's
credibility.
credibility,
firm
in
depends
demanding
adherence to
If
she
parties
flout
should
it
To
or
sets a
crowded
must
analysis, the
heavily
a district judge
managing
he or
the parties
on
ensure
the
such
must often be
dockets
and
announced deadlines.
reasonable due
not be
allowed
painlessly
to
date,
casually to
escape
the
4, 7 (1st Cir.
1990).
Here
fairly
jumps out of
the record.
assessment of
We cannot say
the situation
that including
of
an abuse of discretion.
not abuse
Legault
its discretion in
herself.
overbroad,
the
While
core
the district
court certainly
declining to impose
her
of her
sanction
grievance
motion
was
did
sanctions upon
may
found
have been
to be
well
supported.
III.
III.
In
court
in
considering and
ample
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
__________
a textbook
imposing
clear notice
opportunity to be heard.
job by
sanctions.
of the
the district
The
offending
claimed misconduct
and
-13-
or trivial
imposed a
were
sanction crafted
sufficiently egregious
to penalize only
to
improprieties that
penalty and
Affirmed.
________
warrant a
He then
clearly
targets of the
____________________
Plaintiff-appellee, though
opinion
Her
as a testament to
brief,
relying
irrelevancy,
combination of
the
is
the cogency of
substantially on
almost
useless.
the essential
It
overcharged
has
weakness of
view this
been
rhetoric and
rescued by
appellants' position,
-14-